After
you’ve been riding & racing as long as I have, racing sometimes
becomes more of a “have to” than a “want to”.During the racing season, I of course, try my best to make every
race, & finish every race, and between the sponsors,the points chase, & being an officer of the club, the “have
to” feeling gets pretty strong at times. So after the end of our season,
there are times when I just want a break, & ( believe it or not ) just
don’t feel like riding.

Thus
it was, as I headed up to the Brian Storrie Grand Prix just outside of
Denton Texas a few weeks ago. In fact, I didn’t even take my race bike,
instead just some camera equipment, and the wife’s fourwheeler.

The
two day event, was being put on by one of our own local pro riders, Gas
Gas dealer, Race-Tech suspension guru, and ISDE veteran, Mr. Brian Storrie.
Brian apparently has some land to the east of Denton, & was allowing
us ( mostly TCCRA riders )to
come out & abuse it. The land was pretty nice. It had lots of nice
green grass, trees, creek crossings, & well, some other stuff,
including a small moto section that Brian must use to keep in shape for
whippin’ up on the rest of us.

As
it had been raining for a day or two before the event, the area was a
little moist.

I, with
my keen eyesight & sensibilities, decided to park close to the gate so
as to be able to get out quickly in the event of another downpour. And so,
after paying the modest fee to get in & cover this event, I pulled
through the gate, spun the Patman Racing van around to position myself
close to said gate…and promptly became stuck in a bog. Oh it looked
solid enough, green grass, open, & flat, but in no way solid…right
up to the rear axle.

As the
van lurched to a stop, I looked over at my friend Bryan Pruner, &
said,

“Well
then… We’ll park here”.

I
off-loaded the fourwheeler, loaded the camera, & took off to find our
“buds”.

We found
our friends The Pattisons, along with Don, & Marco, & David camped
not far from the bog, & headed up to the riders meeting, where Brian
was insisting that this was just a fun race. As it turned out, I would
have some of the best fun I’d had all year today.

Brian
himself, led everyone around the course once before the racing was to
start, & from my spectator position, safe on the fourwheeler, it
looked to be in excellent condition, certainly no dust, though there was a
mudhole or two.

A whole
bunch of people said that they would ride the unclassified race as an
extra practice lap or two, & sure enough there were about a hundred
riders in the unclassified event. Everyone seemed to be having fun, &
I even saw a few bike / rider swaps goin’ on in the back woods
(apparently so that more than one guy could get some practice in). No big
deal though, as the unclassified race was not trophied, & was only for
fun.

Over the
course of the day, I saw some good racing, and a lot of people smiling.

Later at the buddy race, I even saw a guy crash
without being on his motorcycle!

They had a Le Mans style start, where the buddy would
hold the bike for the racer, while he ( the racer ) would line up, &
race the other competitors ,on foot to the bike, then get on , start it
& start racing. Seems one fella wasn’t used to running in his
Alpinestars, & went head over heels just before he got to his scooter.
Later on it was great fun to go over to the “hand-off area” where the
teams were switching riders every lap. Some were kinda nonchalant about it
while others could do a bike / rider change in a matter of seconds.

I also
witnessed some good mudhole action, some great airtime on the moto
section, laughed my ass off ( well not all of it ), and all in all, had a
super day. Mr. & Mrs. Pattison fixed up some good food. And while my
friend Bryan Pruner was racing I got to ride around on the fourwheeler
with his gorgeous wife Monica, pretending to “show her around”.

Pete
Storrie ( Brian’s dad ) was nice enough to snatch the Patman Racing van
out of the mud with the tractor without much ado, & we got to talk for
a few minutes, He’s a pretty good guy.

In the
evening, ( though I didn’t stay for it ) there was supposedly a pit-bike
race, and that’s always fun to watch.

Iwent back on Sunday for day two, but it was rainin’ a little, and
my friends didn’t show so I ended up leaving early I the day, but I did
want to take this opportunity to say “hat’s off the Storries”. To
Brianfor lettin’ us
use his land, & puttin’ on what was a well organized, and truly fun
event, and to his dad Pete for getting’ me, and many others I understand
out of the mud. Great job guys !Hope you do it again soon.And
to those of you who missed it…don’t do it again !